Biography

Nordfeldt emigrated to Chicago in 1891 from his native Sweden. After a year of training at the Art Institute of Chicago, he began a decade of further art studies, painting, and printmaking. In 1919 he established residence in Santa Fe, where he lived for the next twenty years. In his paintings, etchings, and lithographs he analyzed the rugged southwestern landscape or expressed fascination with his Hispanic neighbors. Elements of Cezanne and the Fauves are present in his work, along with a personal strain of expressionism. From 1934 to 1937 Nordfeldt divided his time among Wichita, Minneapolis, and Santa Fe, where he taught, painted portraits, and made lithographs for the PWAP. In 1937 he moved to Lambertville, New Jersey, which became his home for the rest of his life.